ibooks calls it quits
I can’t say I didn’t expect this, but Locus Online is reporting that ibooks and Byron Preiss Visual Publications both closed their doors yesterday after filing for bankruptcy. No doubt publisher Preiss’ untimely death in an auto accident last summer has something to do with the companies’ demise (and recent erratic publishing schedule).
So what does this mean for those as-yet-unreleased ibooks titles like the inaugural HORROR: THE BEST OF 2005 or the usual year-enders for sci-fi and fantasy? Though no official announcement has been made, I suspect we won’t see them. Damn.
Some past ibooks titles we’ve reviewed in our short time here:
• JACK THE RIPPER
• MISTER X: THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION VOLUME TWO
• MYSTERY FOR CHRISTMAS
• THE ULTIMATE FRANKENSTEIN
• THE ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN
• YEAR’S BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS, COMICS & MANGA
[...] Though ibooks’ bankruptcy has likely dashed all hopes for it to appear, John Gregory Betanacourt’s HORROR: THE BEST OF 2005 would have contained the following stories, according to VanderWorld: [...]
Just in from a reliable source
Press Release:
Prime Books is proud to announce a new series of “year’s best” fiction anthologies covering science fiction, fantasy, and horror, for early summer releases in trade paperback editions. Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year, will be edited by notable genre expert Rich Horton. Horror: The Best of the Year will be edited by World Fantasy Award-nominated editors John Gregory Betancourt and Sean Wallace. Covering the best short fiction of 2005 these three anthologes will repint modern classics from authors including Clive Barker, Peter Beagle, Ramsey Campbell, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, James Patrick Kelly, Caitlin Kiernan, Joe Lansdale, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Swanwick, Gene Wolfe, and many more. Trade distribution by Diamond Books Distributors.
[...] In the wake of ibooks’ bankruptcy, leaving several year-end “best of” anthologies hanging, word is Prime Books will help fill the void. Editor Brian M. Thomsen shared the below tidbit from “a reliable source,” and it sounds like the horror book will be the same as ibooks’ announced one, but the sci-fi and fantasy ones are not those left behind by Jonathan Strahan. Either way, this is encouraging news. [...]
[...] After unfortunate delays, the anthology HORROR: THE BEST OF THE YEAR 2006 EDITION is finally available. Even with curbed expectations, I had to ask upon completion, “That was the best you could find?” [...]